Millions of people across the country lost jobs last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, including many people in Wisconsin.
But while workers in the Badger State did suffer, Wisconsin fared better than many other states.
According to the Wisconsin Policy Forum, from September 2019 to September 2020, Wisconsin lost about 5 percent of total jobs.
Nationally, the average was 6.8 percent, while neighboring states like Michigan lost 7.9 percent of total jobs.
Taking the biggest hit were jobs that required being face-to-face, especially in the leisure and hospitality sector.
"Now that we are hopefully in a period you know where case levels are starting to decline. We're sort of steadily edging, you know hopefully closer back to a normal way of living. Hopefully this puts Wisconsin in a little better position than some other parts of the country to continue to rebuild its economy,” said Mark Sommerhauser, the communications director and a policy researcher at Wisconsin Policy Forum.
Researchers say 74% of the jobs lost in the state from March to April of 2020 have been regained.
